13A Study of a fortification for the Porta al Prato of Ognissanti

In the first few months of 1529, alarming news spread through Florence, to the effect that the Medici Pope Clement VII was preparing, with the assistance of the Imperial army, to restore to power his family, expelled from the city just two years earlier. Michelangelo, appointed “general governor and procurator of the fortifications”, drew up a series of proposals for defending the gates in the walls. Owing to their complexity, however, they were not implemented, or only to a very small extent, and whatever was built has now been destroyed.